Bionic Nurses

Midnight Thunder writes "The Japanese have come up with a bionic suit designed to allow nurses to lift patients with out damaging their backs. This is just the sort of thing I need for lifting the monitors at work." And then there was mecha. Pretty cool idea - and maybe it could have helped Scoop.

Comments

Re:They are alot farther then us

[spellcheckur]

Anyone else think that the Japanese might be a little farther then us in the Robitics area? ...I saw a show about what the best minds at MIT were doing with Robitics right now and it doesn't seem like we are even near what the japanese have.

First, congratulations on being at MIT, although in the interest of appealing to a broader audience, I'll assume that when you write "further than us" what you mean is "than the U.S.," (even though this response actually deals with MIT).

From what I have seen, Japanese companies have (generally) focused on industrial scale robots with somewhat traditional methods of movement. They have been much work on large biped and quadriped robots, often with servos or linear hydraulic actuators as their primary methods of motion. The goal of many of these robots, it seems, is to allow humans to apply machine force and precision in industrial settings.

Academic research (both in the US and abroad), on the other hand, is focused (for the most part) more on advanced control control issues for for robots and innovative methods of actuation.

The MIT Leg Lab is one of the best known robotics lab in the U.S., and their work with active feedback, one legged locomotion, and gymnastic robots is still some of the most advanced robotic control system work being done. There is other work being done at MIT exploring polymers that shorten when electrical current is applied to them. Bundles of them could be used to build robotic "muscles" for more animal-like movement, or, in a far-off scenario, bionic replacements for damaged body parts.

There are several reasons it seems like Japanese companies are "ahead." Academic work involves a lot of simulation. Some of the best designed robots only exist in virtual worlds, simply because it's too expensive for academic institutions to construct them, purely for proof-of-concept research. Also, it's unclear that there's a difinitive "goal" for robotics. Industrial robotic design is aimed at factory/workplace automation. The Leg Lab is concerned with understanding legged locomotion in all its forms (both natural and invented). Sony is concerned with making a dog that can push around a little plastic ball. In short, it's tough to say someones "ahead," because everyone's going in different directions.

As an aside, it's dangerous to think of advanced research as an "us vs. them" race. This isn't cold war military work. Many research facilities, MIT included, operate off sponsored research funds from many international sources. Many of the students at U.S. institutions are not from the U.S.. Most importantly, the results of almost all academic research is openly shared. There isn't a nationalistic aspect to this research.

Yes, it seems like the Japanese produce more in the area of industrial, applied robotics than does the U.S., but that's only one aspect to "the robotics area."

Nurse Shortage

[Derkec]

While these may be expensive, they might be well worth the investment for a hospital. At least in the U.S. (I'm not up to speed worldwide) there is an increasingly nasty shortage of nurses. Keeping the ones you have healthy is important and perhaps cool technology like this might make the field more attractive. But really, it's probably time for some sweeping pay scale raises.

Very cool stuff though which could be useful in a number of professions. Hopefully, when these suits get cheap enough, we'll seem them protect much of the manual labor in industrial contries. Next task, how to help the worldwide working poor.